Is Moving Average & Simple Moving Average the same thing?

[Guest eoso]

I've been following a Youtuber who uses 180 day SMA as one of his indicators but I can't seem to find it in the list of available indicators on IG but "Moving Average" is avaiable.

 

Are they one and the same and if not how can I recreate the 180 day SMA line?

[Caseynotes]

Hi ,  yes they are the same, all types of moving averages are similar be they simple, exponential, smoothed, lineal weighted, Hull, and many others. The number refers to the period the average is applied to so a 180 day sma refers to the simple ma being applied to a daily chart and so averaged over the last 180 days, the 180 sma on a 1 hour chart means the average is taken over the last 180 hours.

 

So note the time frame of the chart used by the Youtuber you are following and on your same period chart click to add a simple ma and edit it to show 180 periods. 

 

Just a side note, it is possible but difficult to put a 180 day sma onto a 1 hour chart, easier just to look at 2 charts.